Means for eliminating dust from grain



y 1950 R. 1. PATTERSON 2,513,963

MEANS FOR. ELIMINATING DUST FROM GRAIN Filed June 26, 1947 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR. RaylPa fie/Jam MEANS FOR ELIMINATING DUST FROM GRAIN Filed June 26, 1947 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 48 34 INVENTOR.

- Fag Pafferson AHorneu I y 4, 1950 R. l. PATTERSON 2,513,963

MEANS FOR ELIMINATING DUST FROM GRAIN Filed June 26, 1947 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 --|o Fl E. 4:.

Patented July 4, 1950 UNITED STATES PATENT, OFFICE MEANS FOR ELIMINATING DUST FROM GR IN Boy I. Patterson, Minneapolis, Minn.

Application June 26, 1947, Serial No. 757,248

4 Claims. 1

My invention relates to means for cleaning the boot and eliminating dust from grain as it is fed to an elevator leg. The invention has for its object to provide a boot hopper with bottom openings, which may be opened or closed by a slide, in conjunction with means for creating a stream of air through said openings to withdraw grain, dust and the like therefrom; and the invention further provides a connection to said air moving means to relieve back pressure in the elevator leg and pass a regulated stream of air through the grain going into the boot hopper where the grain is agitated as it enters the buckets of the elevator while it is operating to lift the grain. This stream of air with grain, dust, chaff and the like either from the bottom of the hopper or from the grain inlet to the hopper is moved to a separator where dust, chaff and the like is separated from the grain and discharged to any desired point, preferably outside of the elevator.

Grain as it is delivered to the boot hopper of an elevator leg not infrequently clogs the boot, and even where the boot is not clogged it is desirable at intervals to clean out the boot, also in a small country elevator there is ordinarily no means for providing for cleaning of the grain as it goes into the elevator bins with extraneous matter in it.

I have discovered a simple but effective meth- 001, which, by the use of a single air moving and separatin device will act both to clean out the grain from the boot hopper and to remove dust, chaif and the like from the grain as it goes up the elevator leg to be distributed to the storage bins. This arrangement consists primarily of blower mechanism for creating a strong current of air suflicient to move grain, and in connecting said blower mechanism at one side to a standard cyclone separator and at the other side either to the bottom of the boot through openings unclosed by damper slide mechanism or for connecting with the conduits conveying the grain to the boot.

In either case the blower moves grain, dustladen air and the like into the separator which discharges the air and any dust carried by it out of doors while the grain will be taken from the separator and discharged either into the receiving bin or into the leg itself.

It is a principal object of my invention, therefore, to provide means for creating a strong current of air together with means for opening the bottom of an elevating leg boot and means for conducting the current of air from within It is a further object of my invention to cause the strong current of air to be drawn through grain within the elevator leg casing at or near the point atwhich it is being loaded, said air to be discharged, with dust and other extraneous matter taken from the grain and with some particles of the grain, into a separator, from which the air, dust and other extraneous material is discharged and the grainis carried and conveyed to the rain bin or directly within the elevator leg casing.

It is a further object of my invention to provide separating means of the cyclone type so that any dust taken up with the grain will be discharged with the air from the system and the grain particles will be recovered and discharged into the receiving bin or the elevator leg casing.

It is a further object of my invention to provide air control means connected with an open ing or openings in the bottom of the boot hopper comprising a valve slide which may be suitably adjusted to regulate the volume of air drawn through to produce eflicient withdrawal and cleaning of the boot hopper and relief from plugging and to clean out the boot hopper.

It is a further object of my invention to provide, in connection with the vacuum producing means, a pickup member for gathering grain from the floor adjacent the boot hopper and carrying it through the dust separator apparatus to return it to the grain holding bin from which it is fed to the boot hopper, freed from dust which may have been picked up with the grain.

The full objects and advantages of my invention will more fully appear in connection with the detailed description thereof given in the appended specification, and the novel and important advantageous features of my invention will be particularly pointed out in the claims.

In the drawings illustrating the application of my invention in one of its forms:

Fig. 1 is a somewhat compressed elevation view of my invention showing the parts in relation to an elevator leg.

Fig. 2 is a somewhat enlarged sectional plan view taken on line 2--2 of Fig. I viewed in the direction of the arrows.

Fig. 3 is an enlarged sectional plan view taken on line 3-3 of Fig. 2.

the descending run 15 of the belt II on its re turn trip with the buckets inverted.

The belt I 1 goes over a bottom pulley l6 within loading chamber 11 in the boot hopper l8. The belt ll carryin the buckets l2 goes over a top ,7 The conduit 63 goest hro'ug h "an opening 65 in the side of the upward moving elevator leg casing Ill, see Fig. 3. The tube 64 discharges through an opening 66 to the interior of bin 22. A valve plate shown in dotted lines at 61 can be swun a into either of two positions by means of finger pulley indicated in dotted lines at l9, Fig. 1',

which pulley is driven by a motor through well known head drive means 2|. As the belt H is driven the buckets l2 move from their inverted position through the lower part of chamber In to their upperor lifting position as shown at the'right of Fig. 3.

1 Grain is fed from a bin 22 down a sloping chute 23, the feed being controlled by a gate 24 through the sidewall 25 of the bin 22. The grain enters the'boot chamber I! through an opening 26 as indicated in Fig. 3.

A considerable part of the grain so introduced into the chamber H is'loaded on the buckets l2 and is carried up to be'discharged from the leg through the discharge chute 21, Fig. 1. Some of the grain, however, falls' to the bottom of the chamber 11 where there are sloping guide walls 28; 23, 3D, and 3l directed into downwardly opening ducts 32 and 33, see particularly Fig. 5.

These ducts are adapted to be opened or closed. by a slide damper 34, which is provided with a somewhat narrow opening 35 and a second opening 38 double the'width of the opening 35, with an'intervening imperforat'e portion.

The "damper 34 is operated to slide back and forth by means of cords 3'! and 38 running respectively over'sets'of pulleys 39, 40, 4|, 42, 43,

and 44, suitably mounted and supported. The cords 31 and 38 are provided with handles and 46 by means of which they are operated. These cords are connected at M with the slide 34. As shown, Fig. 5, the cords 31 and 38 are connected at M to extend in opposite directions therefrom. It follows that bypulling on either one or the other of the handles 45 and the slide maybe moved along its guide from the position of Fig. 5, in which both bottom ports or openings 32 and 33 are fully open, to successive positions in which port 32 is closedmore or less but port 33 remains fully open, or in which port 32 is also closed more orless until both ports 32 and 33 are fully closed. The ports 32 and 33 open into a chamber which extends into a passageway 49 having' connected therewith a curved passageway 50. The latter has a discharge extension 5! which opens into the center of a blower casing 52. Inthe casing 52 is a blower fan 53 operated. by a motor A damper.55 controlled by an arm 56 on the damper'shait and shown in dotted lines in Fig. 2 mayregulate the volume of air drawn from the blower casing. The blower discharges into a verticalcasing 51, Figs. 1', 2, and 4. The casing encloses a duct which is extended atright angles to a horizontal casing 58 and discharges tangen tially into the upper drum'59 of a cyclone separator 60. j

pieces.

' In one position, as shown in Fig. 1, this directs thev discharge from the passageway through member 6| into the bin 22, from which the grain is joined with other grain in bin 22 and returns to the elevating leg chamber ll as shown in .i In the other position of-valve tlh'the grain is caused to move through the conduit 63 to deliver directly to the elevating leg it], where most of the return will be gathered'up by the ascendingcupsl2;

From the cyclone separator Ell- 6G at the upper center thereof, a pipe- 69 conveys the air from pipe. 58 to-a point of discharge which normally would be outside of the building where the apparatus is housed; This discharged air will carry with it dust, chaff, fine particles of various sorts which it is desirable to have cleaned from the grain before it is elevated by the elevator leg to be delivered to thestorag'e bins." Y r In operating the 'elevatora-leg in delivering grain to'the bin 22 and in-connection with the handling 'of the grain generally, there is' usually some spillage of grain on the floor indicated generally at 10 in Fig. 1. Heretofore it has been found diificult to recover this spilled grain for two reasons;v first,'it ishard'to pick up with a shovel and the like and usually in doing that du and dirt is ordinarily taken with it. 1

To obviate this difiiculty I'provide a nipple H extending outwardlyirom a conduit casing eX- tending upwardlyrfrom-casing5l. To this nipple is suitably attached an'extension tube 12. At the other end of tube 12 is a rigid handle tube 13 to which is attached'a broad suction head M. The suction head His adapted to be pushed over the floor-'10, and spilled grain on the floor will be picked up, passed through the passageway 50 and blower casing 52, from which it is projected throughthe -pipe5l to the separator 59, 5Q. 7 The'above described means is operative to remove grain from the'boot-hopper andthoroughly clean out the boot hopper and also pick up any grain which may be scattered over'the floor about the boot hopper; This is ahighly valuable func tion, since the boot hopper sometimes becomes completely clogged and always accumulates more or less dust and dirt, which heretoforecould only be removed by time-consuming and expensive opening. up of the hopper itself. Furthermore the grain'which is taken from'the boot hopper or picked up from the floor is thoroughly cleaned before it goes back either to the receiving bin or into the elevating-leg itself. j

My invention goes 'further however, in that it is'well adapted to clean the grain itself as it is ted to and is bein'g agitated by the' loading in the ascending bucketsof the elevating leg., To efiect this a' 'verticalfconduit' 15' opens ,directly into the chamber "of casing 5|." The conduit '15 connects with a horizontal conduit 16, which in turn is extended in a conduit 11. The conduit 11 extends horizontally at right angles to conduit 16 to a point in the vertical planes of the feed chute 23. A conduit 19 extends from the end of conduit 11 vertically downward and enters an opening into the top of feed chute 23 at 80, Figs. 1 and 3.

By this means when the damper slide 34 is positioned to close both of the openings 35 and 36 from the bottom of the boot hopper, the air moved by the blower 53 is drawn through opening 26 from the interior of elevator boot chamber I! over and across the stream of grain moving from conveyor 23 into the loading boot chamber I! and agitated by the loading action.

This gives two important results, first it relieves the back pressure within the elevator casing caused by the incoming grain filling the successively rising buckets, and second it takes from the grain dust, chafi and other extraneous matter, which gives a superior grain product going to the storage bins.

In both operations, that is where the air stream is used to clean the grain and other matter from the boot hopper and where it operates to clean the grain as it is fed to the boot hopper, the grain is moved into the separator 60 and from there follows the course selected by damper 68 either to go back to the receiving bin 22 or into the direct elevating casing IU of the elevator leg. Any dust which is picked up along with the grain will, of course, be driven with the grain to the separator 59, 60 Where the dust will be removed and be discharged through the discharge pipe 69.

The advantages of my invention will appear from the foregoing detailed description thereof, the obvious and very important advantage is that, whenever the boot hopper either becomes clogged with grain and for other reasons needs to be cleaned, it can be don-e in a very short time merely by shifting the slide damper 34 to unclose the openings 35 and 36 more or less, to the extent desired, and that with the grain being drawn out of the boot hopper will go any accumulation of dust, chaff and other undesirable material, which is effectively removed from the grain with very little added expense for power, handling and the like.

A further advantage of my invention arises out of the adaptation of the strong air current provided for cleaning the boot hopper to a circulation of said air current through the boot hopper and over the incoming grain, both to relieve back pressure in the elevator leg and to clean the grain from dust, chaff and other extraneous material.

A further advantage of my invention comes from the fact that wastage of grain is quite efiectively prevented by using the same air current which cleans the boot hopper or cleans the grain as it is moved from the receiving bin to the elevator leg. The pick-up means provided gathers scattered grain on the floor of the elevator and the separator removes from it the dust and other extraneous matter which may be picked up with the grain before the grain is returned to the receiving bin or the elevator leg.

I claim:

1. In combination with a grain elevating leg,

a loading boot having a bottom wall associated therewith, means forming an opening through said bottom wall from the boot. means forming a chamber below the opening and the bottom wall, a separator, a conduit leading from said chamber to the separator, and air moving means in said conduit for drawing air through the boot and air and grain from the chamber to convey the grain to the separator and there to cause removal of dust therefrom.

2. In combination with a grain elevating leg, a loading boot having a bottom wall associated therewith, means forming an opening through said bottom wall from the boot, means forming a chamber below the opening and the bottom wall, a separator, a conduit leading from said chamber to the separator, and air moving means in said conduit for drawing air through the boot and air and grain from the chamber to convey the grain to the separator and there to cause removal of dust therefrom, said separator including a duct for conveying the dust to a point of discharge.

3. In combination with a grain elevating leg, a loading boot having a bottom wall associated therewith, means forming an opening through said bottom wall into the boot, means forming a chamber below the opening and the bottom wall, a valve for opening and for closing more or less said opening, a separator, a conduit leading from said chamber to the separator, and air moving means in said conduit for drawing air through the boot and air and grain from the chamber when the valve has been moved to any opening position to convey the grain to the separator and there to cause removal of dust therefrom.

4. In combination with a grain elevating leg, a loading boot having a bottom wall associated therewith, means forming an opening through said bottom wall from the boot, means forming a chamber below the opening and the bottom wall, a separator, a conduit leading from said chamber to the separator, air moving means in said conduit for drawing air through the boot and air and grain from the chamber to convey the grain to the separator and there to cause removal of dust therefrom, a storage bin, separate chutes extending from the bottom of the separator to the storage bin and to the elevator leg respectively, and a damper selectively causing the grain to move through one or the other of said chutes.

ROY I. PATTERSON.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 261,630 Roberts et al. July 25, 1882 844,033 Munn Feb. 12, 1907 1,630,780 Budd et a1. May 31, 1927 1,659,088 Dowall et a1. Feb. 14, 1928 1,766,941 Prouty June 24, 1930 1,827,326 Moore Oct. 13, 1931 1,963,375 Osgood June 19, 1934 2,217,538 Carson Oct. 8, 1940 2,299,623 Harper Oct. 20, 1942 2,415,503 Lor-enzen Feb. 11, 1947 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 564,839 Germany Nov. 23, 1932 55,402 Sweden Oct. 23, 1923 

